ICC World Cup, 2007

Bulletin

Bangladesh fans pledge support to Bashar, condemn effigy burning

5 April 2007

After the news of effigy burning of Captain Habibul Bashar hit the world media headlines, majority cricket fans of Bangladesh are pledging support to Bashar, who is the most successful captain of Bangladesh cricket history. Bashar captained Bangladesh in 28 matches out of their 35 ODI wins. Fans also condemned the act and termed it unacceptable in terms of Bangladeshi spirit.

"We support Bashar, we are grateful to him for leading Bangladesh to the highest glory of Bangladesh cricket. This is now time to stand beside the team after two losses. We are ashamed of this stupid act by a tiny faction who did it for media attention", said an animated Khorshed Islam, who runs a small business in capital Dhaka and follows Bangladesh cricket since 1997 ICC trophy.

Most of the fans are also detaching themselves from such act and wants punishments to those people who in their words "tarnished the image of Bangladesh fans".

In a recent survey conducted by BanglaCricket.com fans online discussion forum, an overwhelming majority condemned acts like "effigy burning" and pledged their support to Bashar and Bangladesh team in their super eights campaign.

Bangladesh fans pledge support to Habibul Bashar ? Cricinfo

Kazi Sabrina Afrin a microbiology student of Dhaka University was very critical about the act and opined that it was not done by any cricket fans.

"This is not the way Bangladesh fans react. Our team is now doing much better; we have gone through phases where Bangladesh failed to win matches in years. Fans were always beside the team. This is the act of some attention hungry people. They do not represent Bangladesh fans".

Bangladesh's military backed government also showed its anguish over the incident and the incident is likely to be investigated. Bangladesh is now under emergency period and any procession or public gathering is prohibited by law.

Bangladesh's win over India and super eight progress was greeted with widespread jubilation throughout the country and fans are expecting some better show from the team in the super eights stage.

"We are a bit disappointed with Bangladesh's performance in the first two games of the super eights stage. It was difficult to win over Australia or New Zealand but we could have done better. I believe Bangladesh will certainly perform better in remaining matches and will end the world cup on a high", said Mahmood Rejwan, one of the owners of Bangladesh fan site BanglaCricket.com and most Bangladesh fans will probably agree with him.

Former national players expressed their discontent and termed the incident as "senseless act". They asked the fans to show their full support to Bangladesh team.

Bangladesh fans are anxiously following the recent developments about Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore and his desire to coach India team. Most fans want Whatmore to stay with Bangladesh team until next world cup in which Bangladesh is a co-host.

Bangladesh still has four matches left in the super eights stage and faces South Africa on Saturday at Providence Stadium in Guyana.